Country Club drivers are standing up for their right – to turn.
They say they’ve been hit with a ticket blitz at a key right-turn only street into their community.
Community leaders are pushing for a fix to that and other traffic problems in the quiet, residential enclave, and have asked Community Board 10 to request the city Department of Transportation study three problem locations there.
Under consideration is whether to keep the approach to the Country Club Road/Jarvis Avenue overpass the same as traffic reaches it or to change the right lane to let drivers cross into Pelham Bay or make a right turn onto McDonough Place.
Other concerns are:
•having “no standing” signage on all three sides of the Greenstreet triangle Rawlins and Kearney Avenue, up from two-sides now
•improving traffic flow at a sharp turn at Siegfried Place and Country Club Road
“The board has asked that I send [letters] to the DOT to do a traffic study, and I will,” said CB 10 district manager Kenneth Kearns. Kearns added: “It will take 90 days.”
Kearns said the board’s municipal services committee heard Marcia Pavlica, president of the Country Club Civic Association, and her husband Richard, its community improvement chairman, at its April 9 meeting.
Richard Pavlica, who drew detailed maps of both the Greenstreet area and the Country Club Road/McDonough Place (Bruckner Expressway service road), said that during the morning and evening commute, many Country Club and Spencer Estate drivers are receiving tickets when they go straight onto the viaduct while in the right lane of Country Club Road at McDonough Place.
“A police officer sometimes sits in a car on the viaduct and tickets drivers who go straight ahead in the right-turn-only lane,” said Richard Pavlica.
He added that having only one lane of lawful traffic crossing over the Country Club Road/Jarvis Avenue overpass is creating backups on Country Club Road. He would like to see an right-turn arrow traffic light at the location, if he had his way.
“Logan Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard would be the precedent,” said Pavlica. “They have a timed arrow traffic light.”
But if the traffic arrow idea does not work, he suggested that DOT could also install new signage and road markings allowing the right lane of traffic to turn right or go straight.
On Rawlins Avenue, installing a third “no-standing anytime” sign at the Greenstreet triangle would increase driver visibility for those making a sharp left turn to continue traveling north-bound on Kearney Avenue, said Pavlica.
Downed signage at the location could also be replaced, they both said.
While it would require the loss of one or two parking spaces at the Greenstreet triangle, Marcia Pavlica said avoiding any other loss of parking spaces in the community, where parking is at a premium, should be avoided.
Patrick Rocchio can be reach via e-mail at procchio@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3393
Photo by Patrick Rocchio
